Josh wakes up in his bed, breathing heavily, he'd had the dream again. Every night he dreamed of playing for his beloved Sheffield Wednesday, but it always turned into a nightmare after he remembered the words his Grandad had told him. The words eco'ed in his mind, reflecting off his hopes and ambitions and coming back to put doubt in his mind. The words haunted him throughout his life, everything he did was to make Grandad proud, and his Grandad was proud of him, but that was because he thought Josh had given up his dream of becoming a Footballer and had decided to become a doctor instead. Replacing the Football with the ball-point Pen. What he didn't know, was that Josh was on the books at Sheffield FC the World Oldest Football Club, and was about to start his first season as a First team player there.

It was July, and the new season was just around the corner and the Pre-Season fixtures were out.

Sat 26th July - Newi Cefn Druids - Home - 3pm
Weds 30th July - SWFC - Home - 7.45pm

Sat 2nd Aug - York City - Home - 3pm
Mon 4th Aug - Chesterfield - Home - 7.30pm
Sat 9th Aug - Chengdu Blades - Home - 3pm

Josh looked at the fixtures and his attention was drawn to the match on the 30th, the game against Sheffield Wednesday. Now he knew that the team would only be the youth team as the First team was playing Chesterfield the day before, but it was still a chance to play against Sheffield Wednesday. He got changed, grabbed his bag and left his house to go to training. Only a week til the Sheffield Wednesday game. He couldn't wait.

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Darling receives the ball again and lays it off to Gary Townsend who hits the ball from the edge of the box into the bottom Corner to make it 7-0 to the Club in the last few minutes against the welsh side. Darling had already scored two since he came on at half time, one was a header from a corner and the other was a nicely timed run to beat the keeper to the ball and lift it over him into the net. As the final whistle went the crowd were chanting the name Darling, he’d made quite an impact in his debut and the manager recognised his performance after the match. He called Josh over as the rest of the squad went to the dressing room. “You played a great game kid, one of the best I’ve seen so far, I was going to put you on the bench for this Wednesday’s match against the owls, but now I’m thinking of putting you in my starting 11.” He couldn’t believe it; he was going to start the next match. “Thanks coach, I won’t let you down.”

The manager walked off into the dressing room as Josh walked out onto the pitch with a football to kick it into the net when a small voice shouted him. “Hey mister” said the voice. Josh turned and saw that it was a child, he must have been about 9 at the most and he was standing with his dad. “Excuse me can you please sign my autograph book.” Josh was shocked, he had only played one game and he had already gotten some fans, he walked over to the boy with a smile on his face. “Of course I will, have you got a pen.” The man pulled a pen out of his pocket and handed it to Josh. “So what’s your name then mate” said Josh to the kid. “James” he replied. Josh signed the book, ‘To James, Best regards, Joshua Darling.

As he handed the pen and book back the man said “You played well son, I can’t wait to see you play on Wednesday.” “Thanks mate” said Josh, he looked around to see if anyone was watching, he then picked up the ball and handed it to the man, “here take it, as a thank you for supporting the club and for waiting so long for me to give your son an autograph, anyway I have to go sorry, thanks for coming” He turned away and ran towards the dressing room, he could hear the little kid thanking his dad and he turned as he saw them hugging each other. He turned back to go to the dressing room with a smile on his face, it reminded him of when his dad took him to matches when he was little. He had his dad to thank for everything, he was the only person in his family who thought he could make it as a footballer, even his mum thought it was a far fetched dream, but his dad took him to matches, played football with him and was just there whenever he needed him. To Josh, He was the Best Dad in the World.

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A few days had passed since the 7-0 thrashing of the Druids at home and Josh was at training, getting ready for the match the next day against Sheffield Wednesday. The training session was coming to an end, the defence and midfield were doing passing and defending practice while Josh was doing Shooting practice with the other strikers, playing one-two’s and lay-offs before shooting at the keeper. The manager blow a whistle just as Josh tried to lob the keeper but he just got to it and tipped it over the bar. The manager called the squad together to give them the team talk before the match day which he did after the training session before the game. “Ok lads, tomorrow I want you guys to be committed, the last match was too easy, I could of played the under 10’s against that lot and we still would of won. Anyway, were going to play 4-4-2 like usual, we have Jamie in goal, in defence, Smith, Colley, Andy and Gibbs, in Midfield its Wainman, Robinson, Holmes and Townsend, and up front its Powell and Darling. Now I want you Powell, to work with Darling to make goals, he’s young, use him to get the ball to you, use your heads and get as many goals as possible ok.” Vill Powell nodded. The manager ended the session and told the lads to head back to the dressing room, on the way there, Powell walked to Darling and simply said “good luck tomorrow mate, it’s going to be good working with you this year."

Josh hardly slept that night, and the little sleep he did get was cut short by the re-occuring nightmare he had sufferered most of his life. he woke up at about 8 and got ready for the match before leaving the house and catching a taxi to the ground. He was shocked when he got there as people were in the ground, not many but there were a few. As he got ready and the manager made his team talk, outside I could hear voices, chants, louder than I had heard in a match I'd played in before, and it seemed to keep getting louder. It was soon time for him and the rest of the team to go onto the pitch. As he left the tunnel, he was met by over 1000 fans, clapping and cheering them on, they warmed up for a minute before the ref called the teams into positions and started the match.


Sheffield Wednesday reserves get lucky in 2-2 draw
The game started at a fast pace and Sheffield Wednesday nearly took the lead after 2 minutes when Rocky Lekaj ran at the defence and hit a sweat left foot shot which hit the post. 15 minutes later Sheffield FC took the lead through Vill Powell when Joshua Darling played a nice through ball which he finished off in style.
At half time Sheffield were 1-0 up and came out with the same work effort, and they were rewarded when Darling made a run through 4 players before rounding Richard O'Donnell and putting it into the back of the net.

Wednesday went on to make it 2-2 through Kenny Lunt and Rocky Lekaj but all eyes were on 16 year old Joshua Darling who showed his class in this match and picked up the man of the match award. Darling signed a 1 year deal this year and is the youngest player currently in the Sheffield squad.

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Josh picked up the Star on the way home and was shocked that the reporter had singled out him as the man of the match; although he set up the goal and scored he felt that there were players which had a better game. The manager had given the guys the day off and Josh intended to spend it with his mates so he went out with them to town and had fun.



The next day he was woken up at 9, which after a night out was very early. It was the phone, so he put his hand out and felt for it. “He...hello” he said coughing to clear his throat, “hey Josh it’s me Dolby, how are you today.” It was his boss and Josh was caught totally off guard, trying to sound awake he got up, and tried to speak normally. “I’m go...good boss, how are you.” “I’m fine” Dolby said “I’m calling because I’ve just had a call from Brian Laws, you know, the manager of Sheffield Wednesday, and he says that he wants you to join Wednesday. I don’t want you to go but we have received an offer for you and I think it should be up to you if you want to leave, I’ve emailed the details they gave me so all I can say is good luck with whatever you choose.” Josh was in shocked, his performance the night before had given him the chance of a lifetime. He rushed to the computer and checked his email, it read:



Dear, Mr Darling,
I am writing....you have been offered a 1 month trial at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. You have been asked to meet Brian Laws today at 12:30pm at Hillsborough Football Stadium. Wear a suit and smart shoes

Good Luck,

Chris Dolby (Manager of Sheffield FC)

It was 9:30, Josh had two and a half hours to get there, but there was a problem, He didn’t have a car and he didn’t have a suit. How was he going to get there to do the meeting without looking like a slob.

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Originally Posted by thedeeb I love the picture of the program, how did you do that? You are a legend

This is brilliant mate. Very unique with the programme. I look forward to the next installment.

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Josh was panicking, he had no suit, no car and had wasted half an hour searching his wardrobe on the off chance that he had a suit. He found some smart, black shoes but no suit. With two hours left he picked up the phone and got the yellow pages and started calling up every shop near-by that might have a suit. Only one did, but it was a little too expensive.


“£350 quid, for a suit, I can’t afford that, how much is it to rent” said Josh as the man on the phone explained that they only sold suits and didn’t sell them. So Josh caught the bus into town to go around the shops and find a suit.

He got there and looked at his watch, 11:00, he had one and a half hours to get a suit and get to Hillsborough, time was running out so he ran to Burtons but it was closed, of all the days they could close it, why now. So he ran to Next, nothing he even tried M &S and Debenhams, as long as it was a suit he didn’t care but they were all closed.

He looked at his watch again, it was nearly 11:25 and he still had no suit. He was running around town trying to find a shop when he came across a small shop called Niko’s Suits. He walked in and walked up to the man behind the counter and asked if he had any pre-made suits for a man the size of him. The man looked at Josh and said, wait here one moment. He went into the back and came out a few moments later with a horrid, blue suit with a bow tie. Not wanting to offend the man he said “I think it’s a little too fancy.” The man looked at Josh confused, as if to say, this is a good suit, what are you talking about. The man told Josh to come into the back and pick from a rail of suits his size to see if there was one he liked so Josh did. He tried on all kinds of suits and after about 6 different suits, he found one that fit. He took it off and walked to the counter, “£65.99 please” what a rip off.





He left the shop and looked at his watch, 12:00; he had just 30 minutes to get to Hillsborough which was about 2.5 miles away. The problem was he had spent all his money on the suit, and had left his phone at home so he had no way to get to the ground. If he ran to the ground from where he was, it would take him about 40 minutes which would mean he was 10 minutes late and will have lost his chance. He walked into a alley and got changed into the suit, if he was going to make it, he was going to have no chance to change when he got there. So he got changed, and in his £66 suit and smart shoes, he started to run towards Hillsborough.


12:35; time was still running out, he made great progress but he still would have got there late. It still wasn’t fast enough. 12:40... 12:45, Josh was still running but was getting more and more tired, his heart rate was getting higher and there was no way he could keep up the pace he was at for long. He turned a corner and tried to cross the road when a car came around the corner aswell, he stopped, frozen as the car came to a stop just before him. Josh walked to the window to apologise. “Sorry mate, I’m in a rush and...” Josh stopped as the man looked at him in shock, “Mr Darling, what are the chances of me running into you.” It was the man from the game, the man whose child asked for an autograph. “Hey, mate, I’m sorry, but I can’t stay and chat, I’ve got to get to Hillsborough and I only have 15 minutes to get there.” “Do you want a lift?” Josh was shocked and shook the man’s hand “Thank you.” He got in the car and it set off. Next stop Hillsborough.

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